A group of fundraisers are setting off on another cycling trek in aid of the Soldiers' Charity.

Ultra6 with Leeds' Lord Mayor

Three of the Ultra6 team will cycle 250miles from Leeds to Dortmund in Germany. Leeds and Dortmund are twinned and the link provides the team with the chance to deliver a personal invitation from the Lord Mayor of Leeds to the Lord Mayor of Dortmund for the Grand Départ in July.

Ultra6 set off for Dortmund

The riders set off from Leeds Town Hall cycling to Hull to get the ferry to Rotterdam and then on to Dortmund where they will link up with four more fundraisers.

When then arrive back in Hull on May 4 a group of around 75 will accompany them on the final leg to Leeds.

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Bradford singer Kimberley Walsh has been reacting to the news that she is to feature in a special song to mark Yorkshire's Grand Départ in July.

"The Grand Départ coming to Yorkshire for the first time ever is an historic moment and whether you love cycling or not, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To work with Alistair on the official anthem for the Grand Départ is exciting – it’s an emotional, rousing track that people can sing along to."

Ahead of the Grand Depart, it's natural that the whole of Yorkshire is thinking what we'll get out of the Tour De France. But for one charity in West Yorkshire, volunteers are planning what they can give back.

The Streetbikes charity in Liversedge is hoping people inspired to buy new bikes by the Tour will donate their old ones. They've already taught more than two thousand people how to ride - and want to help even more people saddle up, as Helen Steel reports

Just 107 days before the world's elite cyclists descend on Yorkshire for the Grand Depart, a gap has appeared in the budget.

The cost of traffic management, stewarding the route through Yorkshire, even providing the toilets, signs and barriers has been hugely underestimated. The event companies bidding for the contract are still waiting to find out if they have been successful.

The entire budget for the tour is £27 million, but when you look a little closer the amount set aside for event management initially was £2.2 million.

Today its been confirmed that one of the figure's quoted is twice that amount. More than four million four hundred and seventy five thousand pounds.

Duncan Wood spoke to Sir Rodney Walker, the man in charge of Tour de France Hub 2014, which has to deliver the Grand Depart and asked him if he was concerned about the finances: